Milk dispenser container

ABSTRACT

A container for holding a flexible bag of milk for the dispensing thereof. The container is fittable within a refrigerated milk dispenser cabinet. The container has a removably mounted front wall which is transparent. The bottom wall of the container slants upwardly from the transparent front wall and supports the flexible bag of milk. The bag has a dispensing tube which extends through an aperture in the slanted bottom wall adjacent to the transparent front wall and located at the lowermost point of the container. The transparent front wall has a pair of molded flanges extending the length of the front wall defining a pair of opposed recesses which slidably receive a pair of flanges which extend outwardly from, in perpendicular fashion, the vertical side walls of the container.

United States Patent Smith et al.

1451 Mar. 18, 1975 MILK DISPENSER CONTAINER Primary ExaminerStanley H.Tollberg G W. A. l [75] Inventors g z i g gbgg Lemcke AssistantExaminer-H. Grant Skaggs, Jr.

Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Woodard, Weikart, [73] Assignee: ParishManufacturing Inc., E h dt & Na ht Indianapolis, Ind.

[22] Filed: Oct. 1, 1973 [57] ABSTRACT v [21] A N 402,459 A containerfor holding a flexible bag of milk for the dispensing thereof. Thecontainer is fittable within a Related Apphcauon D ata refrigerated milkdispenser cabinet. The container has n in p 0f Feb. a removably mountedfront wall which is transparent. 19731 abandoned The bottom wall of thecontainer slants upwardly from the transparent front wall and supportsthe flexible [52] US. Cl. ZZZ/183, 220/41 bag of milk The bag h adispensing tube i h [5 Cl. tend through an aperture in thg lanted bottonran [58] F'eld Search 222M831 105; 220/41 adjacent to the transparentfront wall and located at the lowermost point of the container. Thetransparent [56] References C'ted front wall has a pair of moldedflanges extending the UNITED STATES PATENTS length of the front walldefining a pair of opposed re- 2,813,653 11/1957 Grossman 220/41 @8898which Slidably receive a P Of flanges which 2,881.942 4/1959 Albright etal 220/41 extend out ardly fro in p p c a a the 3,19L8l0 6/1965 Johnston222/183 vertical side walls of the container. 3212,68] 10/1965 Weikert222/183 3,297,206 1/1967 Scholle 222/183 1 Clalm, 6 Drawmg F Igures MILKDISPENSER CONTAINER CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This is acontinuation-in-part of commonly assigned, copending application Ser.No. 334,684, filed Feb. 22, 1973 and now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention isin the field of containers for holding and dispensing from flexible bagsof liquid.

2. Description of the Prior Art In many cafeterias, restaurants and thelike, milk is dispensed directly from a refrigerated cabinet. Thesecabinets typically have a front door which is hinged to allow insertionof and removal of containers of milk. The containers of milk may takethe form of a rigid metal can or a corrugated box into which a bag isfitted containing the milk. Generally, the same container is used toship the milk from the dairy to the restaurant or cafeteria with thesame container then being inserted into the refrigerated dispenser. Thecorrugated boxes each hold a plastic bag of milk. Thus, the dairyencounters packaging costs since a plastic bag of milk must be insertedinto each corrugated box. In many cases, humidity, free water, etc.,often causes the corrugated box to deteriorate. The dairies andrestaurants must elevate the corrugated boxes from the floor during thestoring thereof to prevent water and other contaminants from contactingthe boxes. Disclosed herein is a new container for receiving a plasticbag of milk which alleviates these problems.

The container disclosed herein is designed to be long lasting andsemi-permanent as compared to the previously discussed corrugated boxeswhich are eventually discarded. Thus, the present container isecologically superior to the prior art corrugated box. It is plannedthat the plastic bags containing milk will be shipped directly from thedairy in conventional dairy containers to the restaurant and theninserted into the present container. It is anticipated that the plasticbags of milk will be produced from plastic film of sufficient gauge toprevent accidental rupture.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One embodiment of the present invention is thecombination of a liquid dispenser cabinet having an inner chamber with abottom wall and a first aperture positioned thereon, a container fittedwithin the dispenser cabinet and having a removably mounted front walland a bottom slanted wall, the container including a second aperturefrom which the slanted wall extends upwardly, and a flexible plastic bagof liquid fitted within the container atop the bottom slanted wall andincluding an outlet tube extending through the first aperture and thesecond aperture.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improvedcontainer for receiving and for holding milk during the dispensingthereof.

A further object ofthe present invention is to provide a multiple usageand semi-permanent milk dispenser container which has a removable wallto facilitate the insertion of a bag of milk and removal after emptying.

In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide acontainer for holding a flexible bag of milk with the container having abottom wall slanted in three planes to ensure for maximum drainage ofthe milk.

Related objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view of a milkdispenser cabinet holding the container incorporating the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a view of the cover which fits upon container 12 shown in FIG.1.

FIG. 3 is an end view of the cover of FIG. 2 viewed in the direction ofarrows 33.

FIG. 4 is an end view of container 12 looking in the direction of arrows4-4 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a view taken along the line 5--5 of FIG. 4 and viewed in thedirection of the arrows.

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 66 of FIG. 2 andviewed in the direction of the arrows.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT For the purposes of promoting anunderstanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now bemade to the embodiment illustrated in the drawings and specific languagewill be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understoodthat no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended,such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated device,and such further applications of the principles of the invention asillustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to oneskilled in the art to which the invention relates.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, there is shown acombination 10 which includes a milk dispenser cabinet having an innerchamber for receiving container 12. The bottom wall of dispenser 11 isprovided with an aperture through which tube 23 of bag 22 extends. Avariety of different types of milk dispenser cabinets 11 arecommercially available. Typically, these cabinets are refrigerated andinclude a front door which is hingedly mounted thereto to allow for theinsertion and removal of containers of milk.

Container 12 includes a pair of vertically extending side walls whichhave flanges l9 and 19 perpendicularly extending outwardly therefrom.The front wall 13 of container 12 is removably mounted thereon having apair of L-shaped brackets 14 and 15 rigidly mounted or molded to frontwall 13 and designed to be slidably mounted on flanges l9 and 19'. Frontwall 13 and brackets 14 and 15 are formed from the same transparentmaterial. Grooves 18 and 18' become narrower at the uppermost end 30 offront wall 13 and correspondingly brackets 14 and 15 become narrower atthe uppermost end of front wall 13. This allows an easy start whensliding front wall 13 on and also prevents front wall 13 from being puton upside down. The tapering at the uppermost end of the housing givesadditional structural rigidity to the slidable fit between brackets 14and 15 and flanges 19 and 19'. Thus, cover 13 is slidably mounted toflanges l9 and 19 and may be removed therefrom to allow for the removaland insertion of a flexible bag 22 of milk.

Cover 13 as shown in FIG. 2 has rigidly mounted locking tab member 34.Member 34 is a molded part of cover 13. Member 34 is designed tointerlock with bridge 25 to prevent cover 13 from bowing outwardly frompressure created by the milk. If allowed to bow out, the fluidcontaining bag would be exposed thereby causing risk of tearing orsnagging. Additionally, on the inside of cover 13 is cover wedge 35.Wedge 35 locks cover 13 in place in the proper position. The uppermostedge of wedge 35 is a horizontal edge and fits in a pressurerelationship with the inside surface of top wall 38 when cover 13 hasbeen completely received by container 12. In addition, stop 39 receivesthe bottom edge 50 of cover 13 when cover 13 has been completelyreceived by container 12. Hole 37 is provided in cover 13 to allowinsertion ofa finger or other grasping apparatus in order to bow cover13 out when releasing wedge 35. Reinforcing ribs 36 are provided at boththe top and bottom of cover 13 to prevent distortion of cover 13 wheninternal pressure from bag 22 is applied.

Container 12 has a bottom slanted wall 21 integrally joined or molded tothe side walls and back wall of the container. Likewise, the top wall ofthe container is integrally joined to the side walls and back wall ofcontainer 12. Wall 21 is provided with an aperture 20 adjacent cover 13.Wall 21 is additionally provided with bottom support legs 27 andstrengthening members 28 and 29. Tube 23 thereby extends throughaperture 20 and a similar aperture provided in the bottom wall ofcabinet 11. Since the bottom wall slants from aperture 20 upwardlytoward the back wall of container 12 and sidewardly toward the sidewalls of said container, the maximum amount of milk possible within bag22 will drain through tube 23. The back wall of container 12 is parallelto the front cover 13 and is perpendicular to the top wall of container12. It is anticipated that container 12 be produced from a material suchas opaque plastic, aluminum, stainless steel, etc. A preferred plasticfor front wall 13 is polycarbonate while a preferred plastic forcontainer 12 is polypropylene. In the latter case, the box would be anintegral piece with the exception of cover 13. Wall 21 slants downwardlyfrom each side wall to the center line of wall 21.

The container 12 is sized to fit within cabinet 11 with the flexibleplastic bag of milk being sized to fit within container 12. By providinga removable transparent front wall for the container, the plastic bagwhich is within the container will be visible and easily removable. Thecontainer will be particularly advantageous in that humidity, freewater, etc., and other adverse environmental conditions will not damagethe structure. In addition, since the removable wall is transparent, anyproduct identifying labels which are provided on the plastic bag will beeasily seen. Likewise, the milk level in the plastic bag will be readilyapparent.

It will be obvious from the above description that the present inventionprovides a new and improved container for holding and dispensing aflexible bag of liquid. It will be further obvious from the abovedescription that the present invention provides a new and improved milkdispensing container.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in thedrawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered asillustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood thatonly the preferred embodiment has been shown and described and that allchanges and modifications that come within the spirit of the inventionare desired to be protected.

The invention claimed is:

1. The combination of:

a liquid dispenser cabinet having an inner chamber with a bottom walland a first aperture positioned thereon;

a container fitted within said dispenser cabinet and having a removablymounted front wall and a bottom slanted wall, said container including asecond aperture from which said slanted wall extends upwardly;

said bottom slanted wall including a bridge integrally joined theretowhich defines said second aperture;

said container having a pair of vertical sidewalls extending upwardlyfrom said bottom slanted wall with each sidewall having an outwardlyextending flange perpendicularly joined thereto;

said flanges becoming gradually narrower at the uppermost vertical end;

said removable wall comprising a sheet of transparent material withdepending portions extending lengthwise on opposite sides of said sheetbeing molded onto said sheet and defining a pair of opposed C-shapedchannels slidably receiving said flanges, said channels becominggradually narrower at the uppermost vertical end securing said frontwall to said container;

said container including a back wall parallel to said front wall and atop wall joined by means of molding to said back wall;

said sidewall being molded to said top wall, said slanted bottom walland said back wall;

said removable front wall having a locking tab member molded thereto,said locking tab member being slidably received by said bridge;

said removable front wall having a wedge-shaped member molded theretopositioned such that when said removable front wall is in place saidwedgeshaped member engages said top wall to prevent movement of saidfront wall; and

a flexible plastic bag of liquid fitted within said container atop saidbottom slanted wall and including an outlet tube extending through saidfirstaperture and said second aperture.

1. The combination of: a liquid dispenser cabinet having an innerchamber with a bottom wall and a first aperture positioned thereon; acontainer fitted within said dispenser cabinet and having a removablymounted front wall and a bottom slanted wall, said container including asecond aperture from which said slanted wall extends upwardly; saidbottom slanted wall including a bridge integrally joined thereto whichdefines said second aperture; said container having a pair of verticalsidewalls extending upwardly from said bottom slanted wall with eachsidewall having an outwardly exteNding flange perpendicularly joinedthereto; said flanges becoming gradually narrower at the uppermostvertical end; said removable wall comprising a sheet of transparentmaterial with depending portions extending lengthwise on opposite sidesof said sheet being molded onto said sheet and defining a pair ofopposed C-shaped channels slidably receiving said flanges, said channelsbecoming gradually narrower at the uppermost vertical end securing saidfront wall to said container; said container including a back wallparallel to said front wall and a top wall joined by means of molding tosaid back wall; said sidewall being molded to said top wall, saidslanted bottom wall and said back wall; said removable front wall havinga locking tab member molded thereto, said locking tab member beingslidably received by said bridge; said removable front wall having awedge-shaped member molded thereto positioned such that when saidremovable front wall is in place said wedge-shaped member engages saidtop wall to prevent movement of said front wall; and a flexible plasticbag of liquid fitted within said container atop said bottom slanted walland including an outlet tube extending through said first aperture andsaid second aperture.